Bigger yawn might mean bigger brain!

Scientists have long debated the reason we yawn, but a recent study shows that bigger yawns are associated with bigger brains!

In the study, scientists watched 29 YouTube videos of various mammals yawning (such as mice, humans, foxes, elephants and hedgehogs) and discovered that small-brained animals with fewer neurons in the cortex (outer layer of the brain) had shorter yawns than large-brained animals with more of these neurons.

Furthermore, it was found that primates had longer yawns than non- primates.

Humans had the longest average yawn at 6 seconds, which was similar to the yawns of African Elephants, which have a brain with a similar weight and number of cortical neurons.